Jake Paul paid $39 million to buy Southlands, a landmark sporting property in Decatur County, Georgia. The professional boxer and Gen Z mega-influencer revealed the purchase to Jack Selby and Graham Stephan on The Iced Coffee Hour podcast in mid-June.

“I’ve been wanting to buy a ranch for the past 15 years,” Paul told the two. “It’s kind of been my dream and why I work so hard.”

Paul added that the the 5,746-acre estate was “… a little bit bigger than what I wanted, but when I got there, I was like, ‘I have to buy this.’”

Southlands

Long known as one of the finest recreational properties in the Peach State, Southlands was assembled by the prominent naturalist and conservationist Herbert Stoddard (1889–1970). Recognized as the father of prescribed burning, Stoddard authored The Bob White Quail (1931), an iconic study long recognized for its pioneering methodology.

“Southlands is so special,” says Jon Kohler of Jon Kohler & Associates, who represented both sides of the transaction with his colleague Walter Hatchett. “It’s the land ownership equivalent of owning an NFL team.”

Kohler believes the Southlands transaction marks the largest recreational land sale in Georgia history. The acreage was assembled almost a century ago by Stoddard. More recently, Rock Creek Capital founder Jim Dahl acquired the land from International Paper in 2010 and began converting the commercial timber tracts to world-class recreational habitat. In doing so, Dahl significantly enhanced the plantation’s value.

“International Paper planted industrial timber, but when they owned Southlands, it didn’t have any lakes or even paved roads,” Kohler says. “Jim turned it into a once-in-a-generation asset.” The acreage boasts 4.5 miles of frontage along Lake Seminole as well as a 20-acre private lake and a duck marsh spanning another 30 acres. Fertile soils support thriving wild quail, wild turkey, and trophy whitetail deer populations.”

Jake Paul Steps Up

In addition to his YouTube channel (with 21 million subscribers), Paul co-founded Most Valuable Promotions, a boxing promotion company, and a sports media and mobile betting company called Betr.

The multimedia mogul and professional boxer clobbered Mike Tyson in a highly publicized boxing match on November 15, 2024. According to published reports, 65 million viewers worldwide tuned in. Paul revealed to his The Iced Coffee Hour hosts that the fight generated a payday in excess of $30 million.

The month before the bout, Southlands came to market for $42 million. In April, Paul paid $39 million.